With the Manchester derby in mind, let’s start with the positives from the trip to Reading – Wayne Rooney is back in form.

With the Manchester derby in mind, let’s start with the positives from the trip to Reading – Wayne Rooney is back in form.

Getting the England striker in the goals and that damaging mix of creativity and finishing is a major plus for this masochistic United side.

After the mind-numbing boredom of the 1-0 midweek win against West Ham I requested a return to the more generous thrill-a-minute entertainment the Reds have been involved in during this campaign.

But I didn’t mean this wacky cocktail of fearsome firepower and frightening flaws.

Somewhere in between there is a happy medium that United are desperately striving to discover.

When you are the Premier League’s leading scorers by some distance with 37 goals, yet 12 other teams in the division have a better defensive record than you, then this is the kind of crazy 90 minutes you are going to get.

City and Tottenham are the nearest sides on 28 goals to challenge United’s potent attacking force.

Yet even struggling Sunderland have conceded less than the punch drunk Reds.

The saving grace from the bizarre goings on at the Madejski was that Reading’s defending was as Keystone Kop, Kamikaze, school playground, comic, call it what you like, but it was as disastrous as United’s.

Of course, it all added to the mayhem but you couldn’t take your eyes off it, while against the Hammers it was hard keeping them open.

Sir Alex Ferguson had a bemused and amused twinkle in his eye as he reflected on those astonishing opening 34 minutes which saw seven goals scored.

Inwardly though, the Reds boss must have been tortured as he wrestles with the mystery of how to come up with a solution to his side’s awful defending.

Now, in between preparing a young fringe side for the Champions League group finale against Cluj on Wednesday, he has to come up with personnel and a plan to quickly turn from madcap to mean before Sunday’s derby at the Etihad Stadium.

The perplexing problem at the back looked like it might be sorted last Wednesday against West Ham.

Anders Lindegaard was a steady Eddie who had taken full advantage of David De Gea’s wisdom tooth problem to gain the upperhand in the see-saw goalkeeper battle.

Rafael was being praised as a future world-class right-back having seemingly rid himself of those erratic youthful moments that at times made him a liability.

Jonny Evans was the lynchpin against the Hammers, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra were solid sidekick components.

It appeared the challenge from the returning Smalling, Phil Jones and De Gea had galvanised the rearguard into solid action.

You hoped that the news that captain Nemanja Vidic was also close to a shock early comeback would add a further steely response to the threat to positions. But it all served to turn United into quivering wrecks.

Reading quickly sussed that anything directed into the Reds’ six-yard area would root Lindegaard to the spot and Evans and Ferdinand would flap about trying to rescue the situation.

Meanwhile, Rafael and Evra were flimsy resistance attempting to stop the danger at source.

But back to that Rooney positive before we get too depressed.

He was lacklustre against the Hammers and the questions about his form were just beginning to surface.

He hadn’t scored in the league since notching two against Stoke in October and the bonus of his creativity in the deeper role in the diamond had petered out.

But at Reading he was right at it again. In this mood he is unplayable.

He calmly put away a penalty kick, poached a smart side-footed finish and then brilliantly flicked an assist for Van Persie.

On top of that he was back attempting to glue the defence together to get them through their diabolical first half crisis.

Carlos Tevez and co might be licking their lips in the run up to the derby, but Vincent Kompany and his cohorts won’t be.

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